Jelly Roll Sweater

Congrats to Isabelle Brunette for being the giveaway winner! Thanks to all who took the time to comment below. I will be replying to each of you soon if I haven’t already.

One day a few weeks back as I was aimlessly rummaging through my stash, I unearthed a couple of skeins of yarn from Republic of Wool in the colorway “Dirty Unicorn”–the white speckled yarn pictured above. Flooded with guilt, I recalled that Sophie had selected these skeins online months before when I had promised to knit her another sweater. I promptly decided that a Jelly Roll sweater (Littles version of course) was in order.

A little more rummaging, purposeful this time, turned up some leftovers of Old Rusted Chair “We Will Rock You” (purple) and Havirland Yarns “Space Cadet” (minty green) as coordinating colors for the yoke and hems. The rolls and colorwork are adorable, are they not? The hems are worked in Fisherman’s rib, a copy of two-color brioche. I was not keen on its looseness for a hem, but after a couple of rounds this colorful stitch won me over. The hems are knit on US size 3 needles, two sizes down from the body, but next time I will probably knit them on even smaller needles and/or more tightly.

Since summer is right around the corner and children grow ridiculously fast, I opted for short sleeves and knit them two-at-a-time, as I always do. Knitting sleeves two-at-a-time enables you to knit them to equal lengths while also avoiding the mind numbing repetitiousness of knitting one sleeve and then knitting the exact same sleeve all over again. The negative is that you cannot try them on easily for sizing, so you have to knit them to your measurements. I like to knit two-at-a-time until I am close to starting the cuffs, at which point I switch to one-at-a-time so that I can try them on before finishing. I find it easier to knit ribbed cuffs one-at-a-time as well.

I posted a video on Instagram a few days ago demonstrating how to knit two sleeves at once, but it was super speedy and condensed, so not easy to follow. Below is a more protracted version of that video showing how to knit two-at-a-time (TAAT) sleeves. If Southern accents offend your ears, simply scroll down to the written instructions below the video. I hope this tutorial helps those of you wanting to try this method!

Written Instructions for Knitting Two-at-a-Time Sleeves

To knit identical sleeves two-at-a-time divide the held sleeve stitches roughly in half for each sleeve at the underarm and top of the shoulder, so that your sleeve stitches can be grouped as follows: Front Right (FR), Back Right (BR), Front Left (FL) and Back Left (BL). The center of the left underarm will be the beginning of the round (BOR). If there are any underarm stitches to pick up and knit, mentally divide those in half. Starting with the left sleeve and beginning at the BOR pick up and knit the first half of the left underarm stitches and then knit half of the stitches held on waste yarn, moving from underarm to shoulder (FL), then pull your needle over to the right sleeve. Again, if the instructions say to pick up underarm stitches, pick up and knit half of the right sleeve underarm stitches and then knit half the stitches held on waste yarn for the right sleeve, moving again from underarm to shoulder (BR). Pull your needle through for magic loop and knit the remaining held stitches for the right sleeve, moving from shoulder to underarm. Finish this sleeve by picking up and knitting the last half of the right underarm stitches (FR). Move your needle to the left sleeve and knit the remaining held stitches, again moving from shoulder to underarm. Pick up and knit the final half of the underarm stitches for the left sleeve (BL). The FL and BR stitches will be on one needle and the FR and BL stitches on the other.

In order to get the needles through all stitches the sleeves will have to be folded over each other and twisted. You can then knit the pattern as stated. All identical sleeves in which the pattern begins at the underarm can be knit in this fashion.

I adore this sweater. I have adored this sweater from the moment Mara (Orange Knits) released it. Even better, Sophie adores it, too. I just might have to knit one for myself! To view my Ravelry page for this project click here.

Giveaway Details

I have exciting news! With this post I am opening up for comments on my blog. While Instagram and Ravelry have served as my primary means of communicating with fellow knitters, I have decided that I would like to start interacting with my blog readers as well. As a way of beating the drum for this expansion to my website, I will be giving away one prize of $50 to the knitting or yarn store/site of the winner’s choice. The giveaway is open worldwide. To enter simply leave a comment below that is relevant to this post or my blog in general. If you would like to request me to publish a tutorial on a specific knitting technique, please let me know. Comments for the prize will close at 2:00 PM CST (after the one-hour Daylight Savings Time adjustment) on Sunday, March 11th, 2018. At this time I will randomly select a winner. After contacting the winner directly I will announce the winner on Instagram and edit this post to include an announcement as well. Welcome all, and good luck!

That video is here in my site. I hope you found it! Essentially I just catch the float after knitting each stitch. I did not employ this method for the Jelly Roll sweater since all the floats on this project are so short already, but I do think the larger “bars” in the yoke would have looked better if I had.

Your sweater is beautiful! Many thanks for your video on doing the sleeves together. It’s perfect timing for me,as I’m finally going to knit a sweater for myself and very excited. I’ve been knitting baby sweaters as gifts and now my two grandbabies,and suppose I’ve been stalling,afraid that it won’t come out right. Thanks to you, I am definitely encouraged !. I’m so glad I found your blog

Hallo from Germany and thank you for all the knowledge you share with others through Insta and your blog. I’ve learned so much about color choices and modifications in knitting, that I’m thrilled, specially with your technique for stranded colorwork without floats. I love to read the blog!